Hello members of the Yu-Gi-Oh! blogosphere. This will be the first of many more in-depth posts that I promised. Due to all my exams and other various shenanigans, I took a much needed one month break from the game to sort out my ever shrinking social life. But enough about my life.

The meta hasn't changed too drastically. Tengu has run totally rampant and has totally dominated the TCG metagame. I totally underestimated it and I overestimated Solemn Warning's capacity to deal with the threat. The fact that it takes so long to die and can also be used for synchros is ludicrous. It's almost better than the nightmare that once was Destiny Hero - Malicious.

What concerns me about Tengu is how tricky it is to counter. I'm not one to give up easily, so I did try delving the archives of all packs and did manage to pull up two cards which could potentially be a counter, but may have difficulty being used effectively.

The first of the two is the cousin of the well known Chain Disappearance. Whilst it does lose points for not killing the Tengu on the field, it does find a very interesting niche in rendering it completely useless. Tengu becomes nothing more than an adequately bulky vanilla. Better yet, it dampens Pot of Avarice's effectiveness, which is always a good thing.

For those of you who are regulars to this blog, you will know how much I love Gozen Match. Whilst it is totally restricted to mono-attribute decks, it does hurt Tengu a lot. It basically renders plants useless for as long as it remains on the field. The ruling on it says you can't synchro/tribute/xyz/fusion/ritual summon into different attributes, so the most plants will be doing is summoning a Stardust through a Tengu + Spore play. Watch out for Ryko though.

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During my browsing session, I found something I completely overlooked.

I can't believe I didn't see this sooner. Looks like Gadgets got a new toy to play with. The fact that it's also a Debris target is fantastic. When GENF comes out, it certainly seems like Xyz/Synchro Gadgets will be viable. It's also Machine Dupable, which could reinvent Troop Dupe Scoop. Alas, Gear only summons monsters who are exactly level 4. But nonetheless, it sound like it is workable.

I have to try a build with this. 6 Gadgets, Karakuri Watchdog Saizan, Trooper, Debris, it certainly sounds plausible. I'll work on it for the next few weeks and post feedback once I'm done and I check a few rulings.

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I was totally shocked to find that Infernity got second place at YCS Providence. Not so much that Infernity topped, I knew that would happen eventually, but more because of the deck he was using. It was just... ew.

Seriously, not only did he main Beetles, he also mained Tomato. As evident from his feature match, those two really hurt him. They clogged horrendously.

I'm not going to be naive though. Considering a lot of people in the top spots stack, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Many of my fellow Infernity players are inclined to agree. I still wish to credit him with topping, that is no easy feat. But I must say that his methods were unorthodox and a tiny bit uninformed.

The depressing thing was that one of his hands was FTK compatible, except the Beetle in his hand was clogging and he could do next to nothing. This, people, is why we don't main Beetle.

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I've noticed that diversity in the current metagame has skyrocketed (if you ignore TenguDerp.dek). With Cold Wave out of the picture, GKs losing popularity, and that menace that rhymes with Bevy Form finally out of the game, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has become a lot more enjoyable.

This is the first time in the history of the metagame that you can actually top with something unique sufficed to say it is well built, effective, and that you are a good player. Though admittedly, this owes itself to the splashability of the plant engine, but its better than nothing.

Solemn Warning is still a dominant force in the meta and I have reason to believe it will be after the banhammer sufficed to say it survives it. Those of you who are smart will stay off the BTH bandwagon and be prepared to counter it once the new priority ruling takes effect.

Like at the start of every format, Trap Stun will be powerful and Gladiators will be ferocious, so be prepared for those.

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I always take requests for post. I'm willing to analyze decks (they don't have to be your own), but be warned I do have a 'tough love' policy and will be blunt.

I'd just like to offer a very huge thanks to all of my followers. When I started out I had no idea that I'd get this far, I just want to say thanks to all those who've stuck by me even from day one and I really appreciate the support and the comments I get.